Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Pray for Pastor Forrest Pollock and Bell Shoals Baptist Church

UPDATE: It has been confirmed that Pastor Pollock and his 13 year old son died when his plane went down in western North Carolina. 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

Pastor Forrest Pollock of Bell Shoals Baptist Church has been missing since leaving Brandon, Florida Sunday afternoon in his private plane for North Carolina. He was flying the plane, which never made it to its destination. Search crews on the ground and in the air are focusing on an area near Rutherfordton, NC where an emergency transmitter signal has been detected.

As you pray, remember his wife, Dawn, their 6 children (15-9 years old), the church, and the search crews.

14 comments:

Bell Shoals is my home church. While I no longer reside in the Brandon are,I know the membership there is faithful and strong. Please pray for them. My heart breaks for them, and the entire Pollock family. May our God provide encouragement and peace to all of us who call Bell Shoals "home".

The area north of the airport there is densely forested. It is very rural hill country. In fact it is not far from one of our baptist colleges (Gardner-Webb). I am praying that God will guide the rescuers to wherever the plane may be located.

Our prayers are going up to the God of all comfort on behalf of Pastor Pollock's family and the Bell Shoals family. May His grace encompass you all and the hope of the Gospel that your pastor preached grant you peace in the midst of your sorrow and pain

Our local ABC station here in Western North Carolina is reporting that the plane crashed in Haywood County, a neighboring county to mine. I can tell you that the crash site is in a very rugged, mountainous area. It will take recovery crews a while to get in and out of there. Haywood County is just west of Asheville. Once our local station provides further details, I will try to post a comment again.

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit rest mightily upon the Pollock Family as they grieve this great loss.

The pilot who died in a plane crash in rugged mountains in Haywood County was a popular minister who led a politically active megachurch near Tampa, Fla.

The Rev. Forrest Pollock and his 13-year-old son were killed in a plane crash in the North Carolina mountains, the Federal Aviation Administration said this morning.

The wreckage of Pollock's plane was found about 20 miles southwest of Asheville in rugged terrain near Cruso. Pollock's single-engine Piper PA-32-260 was first spotted was about 9:30 a.m., the Civil Air Patrol reported.

Searchers flying over the mountains found the. Searchers later found the bodies of Pollock and his son, Preston, inside, according to Bell Shoals Associate Pastor George Thomasson. The National Tansportation Safety Board will investigate.

About 75 people gathered for a mid-morning prayer session at Pollock’s Bell Shoals Baptist Church in Brandon, the St. Petersburg Times reported. About half-dozen people knelt in prayer at the front of the sanctuary while Web updates on the search for Pastor Pollock, 44, flashed on two large TV screens used during services inside the massive 3,450-seat sanctuary.

Shortly before 11 a.m., the screens went blank. Ten minutes later, Thomasson told the crowd that Pollock and his son were dead.

"All of our hearts are broken," he said, flanked on stage by a dozen church staff members and parishioners, including Hillsborough County Sheriff David Gee.

Pollock had gone to North Carolina to see his mother on Mother's Day. One of his daughters, Brooke, accompanied Forrest and 13-year-old Preston Pollock on the flight from Florida but decided to stay with her grandmother in North Carolina, Thomasson said. Forrest Pollock planned to fly to Arkansas to pick up a friend before heading to a conference of Christian leaders in Texas.

Pollock's plane left the Rutherford County airport at about 5 a.m. Monday bound for North Little Rock, Ark., according to the Civil Air Patrol, and flew into strong winds in the Blue Ridge Mountains with gusts up to 50mph.